Talk to me about college park and hyattsville

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:college park is a hidden jewel. it has a lower violent crime rate than all the other acc college towns. (charlottesville has 4x the violent crime, chapel hill has 4X the violent crime.) Umd brings in huge employment and government installations (nasa, noaa, homeland security,hhs,national language center,national archives). breaks down in different neighborhoods...try to stay away from the students...they can party a lot. the Umd facilities are open to the public for a small fee and they are rated #1 in the country by princeton review. lots of different sports to attend (Umd has more national championships than any acc school.) there is a new restaurant (fishnet) thats a gem. public elementary (university park) is EXCELLENT...but after that is sucks. Awesome for catholics though...holy redeemer and st marks are awesome k-8 . then Dematha, Palotti or Mcnamara for HS.

College Park is one of the least attractive towns for a major university in the country. It's not a hidden jewel; it's an open sore. There are some excellent researchers there, but I feel sorry for the undergraduates that attend school in such a depressing environment.

Sad, but true.

You clearly have never been to University Park, right next to College Park. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the DC Metro area. I live in Colonial Village in DC which is beautiful, but University Park is absolutely lovely. I would move there in a minute.

[Anonymous]

Why not move to Annapolis itself? Seems that'd be about the same degree of urban as the various Prince George's areas we're talking about and you won't have to drive 45 minutes 3x a week. (Or do you really go into DC proper more than once every week or two?)

[Anonymous]

Hystoric Hyattsville is nice for families (the borders are roughly Rt1/Queens Chapel/Queensburry/Crittenden), Lots of CUA affiliated families in the neighborhood. I don't know the official stats but think that per diversity the historic district is 60% white but am not sure how the other 40% breaks down. School-wise everyone that I know goes to St. Jerome's. The new shopping center at Jefferson and Rt 1 is in walking distance. I used to work in Annapolis and could get to AAMC in 30 min. As others have mentioned University Park is very nice -and more expensive-they have a good elementary school. A new shopping center with Whole Foods is in the initial stages of approval to be developed across from UP. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

OP, there is a pretty nice house in Mt. Rainier that is on the market for $215K. I think its a short sale. I looked at it a couple years ago. Not a lot of closet space, but very charming. This house is across the street and a few doors down from Glut Co-op. Short walk to Joe's Movement Emporium and Mt. Rainier Elementary.

http://www.johnwilliamsjr.com/Listing.aspx?oid=23427&ot=213

Mt R Elem has a peace theme, where they focus on teaching the kids about non-violent conflict resolution. The school is very much loved by all the families I know who send their kids there.

The parents with young kids in Mt. Rainier and Brentwood have a yahoo group for planning play groups and sharing info about kid related stuff. Its a good group!